A moving body would appear amid the waters, some two or three miles off shore, and go through rapid evolutions.

It would flash for a while back and forth among the waves and then dart out of sight.
The body moved with such lightning speed that the best telescopes could hardly follow it.

Its length did not seem to exceed thirty feet.

Its cigar-shaped form and greenish color, made it difficult to distinguish against the background of the ocean.

It had been most frequently observed along the coast between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia.
From Providence, from Boston, from Portsmouth, and from Portland motor boats and steam launches had repeatedly attempted to approach this moving body and even to give it chase.